The Canadian Press
Edmonton police say some of the calls they get for 9-1-1 are so ridiculous, they are launching a campaign reminding citizens of when not to phone the emergency line.
They say one of the worst ones was a call from a driver at West Edmonton Mall who had nosed his vehicle part-way into a parking stall and was annoyed another woman wouldn’t give up challenging him for the spot.
Christine Lyseng, the supervisor of Edmonton’s 9-1-1 call centre, said people actually have called about late or non-existent pizza delivery.
Then there was the woman who wanted a police officer to check out the noise her fireplace was making, and the one who asked police to send someone to help her move because she didn’t have a car.
Lyseng said Edmonton police get roughly one million calls a year.
Of those, 40 percent are through 9-1-1 and 40 percent of those are bogus.
“It never fails, Murphy’s Law,” Lyseng said.
“When operators are just finishing up from one of these non-emergent calls, then they get the one where someone’s having a heart attack or there’s been a serious car accident, a rollover, or a condo fire—something like that.”
Insp. Graham Hogg said nuisance calls are no laughing matter.
“If they’re tied up with a non-appropriate, non-emergency call, it takes time away from what they should be doing,” he stressed.
Hogg also has advice for people who dial 9-1-1 by accident and then hang up.
The operator will call them back.
“If that does happen, please don’t feel embarrassed, it happens to all of us,” Hogg said.
“Please answer it, [say] that it was a mistake, and the operator will cancel the call,” he noted.
“But they have to verify each and every single one of them.”
